The prophetic events found in The Book of Daniel and in The Revelation of John are of great interest to students of scripture, and every Christian denomination has placed their own interpretations upon them. Many have been rather sound in their explanation, while still leaving room for uncertainty. This work does not represent the views of any particular religion, and the facts may be far different than commonly considered.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Part 17:

The Vatican-Mecca Connection

Since the Islamic religion has Allah as their god, which has been mentioned frequently in this study, let’s consider exactly who he is, along with his prophet, Muhammad.

Mecca, in what is now Saudi Arabia, Islam alleges that Abraham and Ishmael built what they call the “House of God” beside the well of “Zamazm.” This is the well which was supposed to have saved Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, when they were sent away by Abraham (Genesis 21). The original “House of God” was a small structure compared to the newer 50 ft. cube-like stone structure of today known as the “Ka’aba.”

Before the time of Muhammad, visitors to the Ka’aba brought gifts of idols; and not wanting to offend these visitors, the graven images were placed inside the sanctuary of the Ka’aba. Along with other pagan deities, icons of the virgin Mary and baby Jesus were placed there.

In Algeria, North Africa (354 AD), a devout Roman Catholic mother gave birth to a son named Augustine. St. Augustine, a title by which he is known to us today, exercised himself as a writer and became busy winning Arabs to Roman Catholicism. Those rejecting Catholicism, however, still remained pagan with hopes of a future leader who would come and unite all Arabs. Their hopes were not in vain.

Just before Muhammad was born, his father was killed, and his mother, Aminah, claims she heard a voice say that her son was to be named “Muhammad.” The child was born at Mecca around 570 AD. Being the birth place of Muhammad, the founder of the great Islamic religion, he became known as the “Messenger,” or “Prophet of God.” So Muslims look to Mecca as their Holy City.

There in the court of the great mosque at Mecca stands the Ka’aba. This idol containing structure holds a fabled black stone supposedly given to Abraham by the angel Gabriel. Accordingly, after Muhammad was born, his grandfather, Abd Al-Muttalib, carried the little child to the Ka’aba to offer up thanksgiving to Allah.

WHO IS ALLAH?Going back before the time of Muhammad and Islam, the Sabeans in Arabia worshiped a Moon-god whose name was Allah, being only one of the more than 360 idols retained in the Ka’aba in Mecca. Pre-Islamic Arabia was grossly paganistic, and each clan had their own particular idols to worship, Allah being one of them.

Some say that the word Allah was derived from the Syriac Alaha, but the name Allah was in existence long before Islam. That is evidenced from the name of Muhammad’s father, Abdullah, which means servant of Allah; and his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, was the leader of Mecca and a custodian of Ka’aba’s 360 idols.

The crescent moon became a symble of Islam, and even their holy day, Ramadan, a period of fasting during the ninth month of the Moslem year, begins and ends with the crescent moon. In the1940's-50's, at Hazor, in Palestine, a major temple to the Moon-god was excavated by archaeologists who uncovered four idols. The first one was known to the Babylonians as “Sin,” but the Arabs called him “Allah.” Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity. The three other Idols were known as the daughters of Allah. They were Al-Lat (Mother goddess like Semiramis of Babylon), Al-Uzzah (Venus or morning star), and Manat (Good fortune or fate).

THE VATICAN AGENDAWhen Muhammad was six years of age, his mother died, so he was cared for by his grandfather. But two years later his grandfather died also. As Muhammad grew up under the protection of his Catholic uncle he became a Mary worshiper and embraced many Romanish teachings, and because of purported dreams or visions he became quite popular among his people.

Considering its religious significance, the Pope desperately wanted to rule the world from Jerusalem, but there was a problem; the city was controlled by Orthodox Jews. At the same time, true Christians in North Africa had missionaries preaching the Holy Bible. Of course, this was not acceptable to the Vatican and such could not be tolerated. Something had to be done to eliminate both the Jews and the true Bible believing Christians.

The Pope realized that the multitude of Arabs in North Africa were a great source of power for the dirty work required for the realization of his aspirations. Some of the Arabs who became Catholics could be used as spies, reporting those who rejected Roman Catholicism, and the Augustine monasteries would serve as bases for seeking and destroying Bible manuscripts held by true Christians.

To aid the Pope in his conquest, he pretended to fulfill the dreams of many Arabs of having their own messiah. The Pope wanted a man with charisma who could become a great leader, one whom Rome could train to unite all non-Catholic Arabs, a leader who could organize a mighty army and that could capture Jerusalem for the Papacy.

THE CALLING OF MUHAMMADThere was a wealthy Arabian widow named Khadijah who was very faithful to the Pope. She had given her wealth to “Mother Church” and retired to a convent. While there, she was given a strange assignment: she was to find such a man the Pope was looking for and marry him for future grooming as the Pope’s dupe. Because Muhammad was already popular with his people, it didn’t take long for her to discover just the right man. Muhammad married this wealthy Catholic 40 year old widow, who was 15 years his senior.

Khadijah had a cousin named Waraquah ibn Naufal who, like herself, was very faithful to the Vatican. He was a charismatic type and had a tremendous influence on Muhammad. While under Waraquah’s tutelage, Muhammad absorbed the writings of “Saint” Augustine and became a great admirer of his works. Consequently, as the Pope wished, Waraquah became the chief teacher and advisor to the future Prophet of Islam, preparing him for his prophetic calling.

Muhammad wanted to unite all the Arab people under a theocratic, one-god, religion, but there were too many gods (360 of them) from which to choose. So he picked one, which naturally was Allah. Muhammad could have picked Manaf, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, or any of the other false gods, but he chose the one for which his father was named—Allah.

During the training of Muhammad, under his secret tutor, Waraquah, he was taught that the Roman Catholics were the only true Christians, and that the others, calling themselves Christians, were actually wicked infidel imposters and children of the devil who should be destroyed, and that the Jews were enemies of Allah.

On the outskirts of Mecca is Mt. Hira, and there, within a cave, Muhammad began having “divine” revelations. Waraquah began interpreting his visions and pronounced him to be Allah’s prophet to the people. Eventually, Muhammad’s “holy” book of Islam, the Qur’an, came forth.

MUHAMMAD RUNS-A-MUCKWhen Khadijah died, in about 622, Muhammad left Mecca and went to Medina, some 200 miles north of Mecca. While there, Allah and his angel Gabriel apparently changed Muhammad into a religious dictator where he raided caravans from Mecca— robbing, killing, and showing no mercy, for the Qur’an orders the death of unbelievers called “infidels.” Those in Medina who opposed him were assassinated. During his raids, Muhammad kidnaped beautiful women, held them for ransom, and amassed a fortune. Using hate, fear, and unforgiveness, the acts of murder, plunder and the rape of unbelievers became lawful. And through these efforts, Satan create the Islamic Empire by way of the Papacy.

Muhammad, wanting the support of all his people, took 10,000 men, conquered Mecca and cleared the Ka’aba of Idols, except for the Moon-god, Allah, which they all worshiped, and declared himself to be Allah’s prophet. This is much like what Emperor Constantine did to consolidate his power over the Roman Empire in his day. He used warring campaigns, and then by legalizing Christianity he produced a Christian facade over an already existing pagan religion.

THE SEED OF JEWISH HATREDIslam, according to their Qur’an, considers Jesus to be merely a prophet, and since the Pope claims to represent Jesus on the earth, the Moslems consider him to also be a “holy man.” In 622, about the time that Khadijah died, the Pope instigated a crusade against the Persians and Jews in which the Catholics were defeated while trying to obtain Jerusalem. As the Arabs were also restless, the Pope moved quickly in granting the Arab generals permission to invade and conquer the nations of North Africa; in doing this, the Roman Pontiff had a plan.

The Vatican promised it would finance and help build Islam a large massive army in exchange for three special favors: 1) conquer Jerusalem for “His Holiness” the Pope; 2) eliminate both the Jews and the true Bible believing Christians, the infidels; and 3) protect the Augustinian monks, monasteries, and Roman Catholics.

Before this time, the Arabs and Jews existed peacefully together. It was the Papacy who engineered a crusade of hatred between the Arabs and their Jewish cousins. While the Vatican was busy training Muhammad, he was convinced by Waraquah and other advisors that the Jews were his enemies. It was while Muhammad was in Medina that he began to show animosity toward the Jews by raiding Jewish settlements.

The domain of Islam quickly became vast. As agreed, both Jew and Bible believing Christians were slaughtered, Jerusalem fell to the Muslims, and neither Roman Catholics nor their shrines were attacked during this time. And to this day, the Islamic people exhibit hatred toward both the Jews and Christians.

So we discover that Muhammad was a stooge selected and seduced by a female agent of the Vatican to create a new religion for the Arab world. This new religion, with advisors from Rome, was to be under doctrinal guidance of the Papacy for the purpose of conquering Jerusalem for the Pope.

TOUGH LUCK FOR THE PAPACYHowever, for the Papacy the plan failed, for by the time the Muslims did conquer Jerusalem, they had grown to such a great number that they felt themselves invincible. The Arab generals had much success everywhere they went and felt that nothing could stop them. Nonetheless, it was now time to turn Jerusalem over to the Pope, but there was a problem. The Pope’s carefully laid plans for their possession of Jerusalem backfired, and the Papacy soon realized that the monster it had created was out of control.

In the Qur’an, Muhammad had written what has become known as the “great lie”—the lie being that it was not Isaac that Abraham attempted to sacrifice upon the alter, but Ishmael. Muhammad had removed Isaac’s name and replaced it with that of Ishmael’s.

In honor of this false Ishmael idea, and the belief that Muhammad was taken up to heaven from this spot, the faithful Muslims built a great mosque (the Dome of the Rock) upon the very spot where that altar stood, the very spot where they believed Solomon had built his temple, the very spot where the Jewish temple stood that was destroyed in 70 AD by Rome, and the very spot where the Vatican wanted to build a temple from which the Pope could rule the world in the end times. As a result, Jerusalem became the second most holy place in all Islam. To give it up to the Papacy would cause a revolt like no other. Not only that, now “His Holiness” a non-Muslim, was being called an infidel.

Wanting to conquer the world for Allah, Islamic ambassadors went to the Vatican and asked the Pope for permission to invade the European countries. This outraged the Papacy, feeling that world conquest was its prerogative alone. Feeling invincible, the Muslims invaded Europe anyway but was stopped and received its mortal wound at the Battle of Tours. This offense to the Vatican was the spark that eventually instigated the holy wars known as the crusades—military campaigns to capture Jerusalem for the pontiff once and for all.

However, the crusades did little good as Jerusalem slipped out of reach for the Vatican and remained in the hands of Islam. Not only did Rome lose Jerusalem, but Turkey, Spain and Portugal fell as well to invading Islamic forces. And a small mountain village in Portugal, “Fatima,” was named after one of Muhammad’s daughters.

As Islamic forces started to invade Sardinia and Corsica, a step toward Italy itself, they agreed to peace talks in which Francis of Assisi was one of the negotiators. These negotiations resulted in the signing of a “concordat,”—a religio-political treaty. Part of the agreement was that the Muslims were allowed to occupy Christian Turkey and build mosques in Catholic countries without interference, while Roman Catholics were allowed to occupy the Arab county of Lebanon and have Catholicism flourish in Arab countries. Both Muslims and Catholics agreed to destroy any efforts of the true Christian believers. Thus, through this and other Roman Catholic concordats with the Islamic nations, Satan used the Vatican to close the door for centuries against Christianity reaching the Arab people.